Good Reason for Untroubled Hearts
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:1-3.
Tough times are coming. But don't worry.
It is in the context of those two short statements that we need to understand today's Scripture reading and all of the counsel in Jesus' farewell discourses (John 13:31-16:33).
The events soon to overtake Jesus will flatten the faith and self-confidence of the disciples. But what comes out of the experience will be a more informed faith that is the genuine thing rather than the shadow of it that they possess on their final evening with Jesus.
The words of John 14:1-3 have comforted Christians for 2,000 years. And they will continue to do so until the end of time, because all of us face the death of loved ones, financial reversals, broken marriages, disease, aging, and the other realities of a disoriented world reeling under the effects of sin.
It is not only at funerals that we need to hear the precious promises of our passage for today. We require them every day.
"Let not your heart be troubled." Why? Because we have a Lord who died for us, got the victory over death, is ministering in heaven at this very moment on our behalf, and is coming again to take us home with Him. When we are walking with Jesus we can have peace no matter how bad it is around us.
"In my Father's house are many mansions." Unlike the exclusiveness and scarcity we face on earth, Jesus' future kingdom has rooms for all who desire to be there.
"I go to prepare a place for you." Mark the "you" as personal as you read this promise. (He is preparing a place for me! In that I can rejoice.)
And "I will come again," so that "where I am" you can be also. I don't know exactly what heaven will be like. But I do know that its central feature will be being with Jesus. One of the greatest things about heaven is that we will always be with Him. Nothing can ever separate us from Him--forever, and ever, and ever.
You see, my friend, you and I have no reason for troubled hearts.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:1-3.
Tough times are coming. But don't worry.
It is in the context of those two short statements that we need to understand today's Scripture reading and all of the counsel in Jesus' farewell discourses (John 13:31-16:33).
The events soon to overtake Jesus will flatten the faith and self-confidence of the disciples. But what comes out of the experience will be a more informed faith that is the genuine thing rather than the shadow of it that they possess on their final evening with Jesus.
The words of John 14:1-3 have comforted Christians for 2,000 years. And they will continue to do so until the end of time, because all of us face the death of loved ones, financial reversals, broken marriages, disease, aging, and the other realities of a disoriented world reeling under the effects of sin.
It is not only at funerals that we need to hear the precious promises of our passage for today. We require them every day.
"Let not your heart be troubled." Why? Because we have a Lord who died for us, got the victory over death, is ministering in heaven at this very moment on our behalf, and is coming again to take us home with Him. When we are walking with Jesus we can have peace no matter how bad it is around us.
"In my Father's house are many mansions." Unlike the exclusiveness and scarcity we face on earth, Jesus' future kingdom has rooms for all who desire to be there.
"I go to prepare a place for you." Mark the "you" as personal as you read this promise. (He is preparing a place for me! In that I can rejoice.)
And "I will come again," so that "where I am" you can be also. I don't know exactly what heaven will be like. But I do know that its central feature will be being with Jesus. One of the greatest things about heaven is that we will always be with Him. Nothing can ever separate us from Him--forever, and ever, and ever.
You see, my friend, you and I have no reason for troubled hearts.
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